I gave Tales of Eternia a go. Lasted 25 hours. Gameplay-wise, it was an improvement over Destiny, but the story was mostly unmemorable. Things just happened, people moved forward with the plot, not much discernible meaning to it. Granted, that may have to do with the English translators removing the skits from the game (AGAIN). For me, the most memorable character was the Cless cameo, and that's only because he is a legitimately stronger swordsman than the player character endgamean asshole.

I remember playing the game, I believe I stopped in.. Bal's Castle? My two main memories are "FUCK VOLT'S PALACE AND THAT DAMN FUCKING STUPID COCKSUCKING PUZZLEGRAGH!!" and the utter enjoyment I had with the mini-game Whiz!. Seriously, Whiz! was more fun to play than the game itself. Absolutely agree that the story was forgettable... I recall it had to do with Celestia and Inferial or something smashing together, but I honestly do not remember if they properly explained why... But yeah, Whiz! was too much fun for me and I eventually stopped, so I never finished.

I recall it had to do with Celestia and Inferial or something smashing together, but I honestly do not remember if they properly explained why

I think you learn that at the end of Balir Castle. Though it's simply "the villain wanted it because of some nihilistic reason or something."

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What did you think of the Whiz! minigame?

It would be addicting if I hadn't played Uno before. Whiz! is essentially a stripped down version of that. Granted, it was still an amusing little minigame, at least compared to the other minigames this game had to offer. *cough*maildelivery*cough*

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

It's ... uh ... a Berserker but spelled differently? I have the feeling this'll be akin to Rune Factory 3, where the protagonist turns out to be half-monster and can turn into a Golden Wooly - only here, the protagonist turns into a bear. Or has a Bear companion... Innocence?

The game's stage is the sacred kingdom of Midgand, which consists of several large lands and countless archipelagoes. In the game's world, the inhabitants work to advance shipbuilding and sailing technologies. Because of the soil, the variation in climate between the the northern and southern areas of the kingdom is huge, ranging from severe winters to everlasting summers.

The game features a sole heroine for the first time in the franchise: Velvet, who is voiced by Rina Satou. Velvet's life took a complete turn after a certain incident that woke her up three years ago. She is an existence that greatly shocks the world. The magazine quotes Velvet as saying, "I won't give up. I'll bite them as many times as it takes."

The issue also reveals that in addition to Mutsumi Inomata, Kousuke Fujishima will also return to the franchise as a designer for the game.

Animation studio ufotable will animate the game's cutscenes. Bandai Namco Entertainment has only revealed the game for a Japanese release, and the company has not yet revealed a release date or price.

Spoiler: large image

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Obviously, I can't fully judge from just promotional materials but what the hell is she wearing? How is any of that supposed to be practical? It's like they decided that the character designs in Graces weren't ridiculous enough and combined Tetsuya Nomura's love for belts with a stripper's wardrobe.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Velvet looks like...A) they took Mila's designB) Dyed It BlackC) Made the clothes somewhat reminiscent of Rutee's outfitD) And then decided to Goth it up

My immediate conclusion just based on her appearance and what little the text says: she turns out to be something that'll destroy the world. Something that isn't supposed to exist, so her very existence causes the world to be in imbalance and will mean she'll have to die. I mean, I'm glad to have a dark-haired heroine, the hair looks lovely, but the design just looks... I dunno, something about the design seems TOO out of there for Tales Of.

I wouldn't say the designs for Graces were ridiculous, at least some looked decent (Asbel and Richard for example) but this just looks like they're trying too hard to make her look super different. And I really like Kousuke's designs, I liked his ideas for Phantasia and Symphonia. (Though what the HELL is with Lloyd's outfit and his hair in the back? That still confuses me)

I don't get why people like Yuri so much - he's an asshole protagonist, which is nothing new, Luke did that first and he had a much better reason for being an asshole. Yeah, he kills two annoying characters which is kinda cool, but it's not treated as anything good, so you know the characters will bug you about that repeatedly.

And maybe it's personal preference, but I don't like the fact that Yuri feels absolutely static in the game. He doesn't change, he never seems to properly question his actions or morals, he exits the game the same way he entered it. Guess I just can't get invested in a protagonist who doesn't change at least somewhat.

I don't get why people like Yuri so much - he's an asshole protagonist, which is nothing new, Luke did that first and he had a much better reason for being an asshole. Yeah, he kills two annoying characters which is kinda cool, but it's not treated as anything good, so you know the characters will bug you about that repeatedly.

And maybe it's personal preference, but I don't like the fact that Yuri feels absolutely static in the game. He doesn't change, he never seems to properly question his actions or morals, he exits the game the same way he entered it. Guess I just can't get invested in a protagonist who doesn't change at least somewhat.

C-A

Just going by what I've heard, I know of two reasons. The first being that Yuri is "the only Tales protagonist who doesn't have/obtains access to some super-human abilities." Stahn casts magic with Dymlos, Reid has "Fibrill" within him, Lloyd gains the eternal sword, Veigue gains ice powers from whatever happened in the beginning, Luke has hyperresonance, Caius can become a wolf-thing, Luca is a reincarnation of a god, Emil is a god, Asbel gained lighting powers, and the Descenders are the Messiahs of their trees. Apparently Yuri doesn't gain anything like that, or so I've heard. The second reason: most Westerners will take a static character provided that character is "sufficiently badass enough," if the reaction to the Witcher games are any indication.From what I've seen of Yuri via LP (because I'm not buying a 360), he seems less like a retool of Luke and more of a retool of Jade (minus the self-loathing prodigy part). If anyone in Vesperia deserves to be called an asshole, it's Rita, at least early game.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

From what I've seen of Yuri via LP (because I'm not buying a 360), he seems less like a retool of Luke and more of a retool of Jade (minus the self-loathing prodigy part).

He's basically Luke, minus the self-loathing from Abyss' second arc, and a bit of Squall, with his whatever attitude. He's a self-righteous guy who calls himself a hero, when all he does is kill people that nobody would shed a tear over. Much as I like the idea of just killing people that the law won't touch, I am not an advocator of self-justice. I guess I go more with Flynn's side that, if people were to just perform their own justice if the law didn't bring about the one they expected, everyone will lose out on law and become a killing heap of mindless murderers. Though Flynn has the issue of first coming across as loving the justice in Vesperia, no mattter its flaws.

Though if we think of it, Yuri is not the first Tales Of characters who feels like a re-tool of a previous one. Just looking at Richter Abend from Knight of Ratatosk, appearance-wise he's a mixture of longhaired Luke and Zelos, with a shade of Jade thrown into it. His original design practically was Jade, but with a more feathery cloak. Personality-wise, he goes the route being like Kratos: the well-meaning mentor and companion to the hero, but who also does his own thing and you can't quite tell if he's a good or a bad guy.

Milla tries to destroy the Lance of Kresnik. She fails, and the four summon spirits get captured.Milla tries to summon the four spirits, and fails.Milla wants to go after the king, and then gets captured.She breaks out, and then loses control over her legs.Jude restores her legs and they set out for the Lance of Kresnik, but they need wyverns to get there.They go to find wyverns, but they must compete in a tournament.Milla wins, but the obvious traitor subplot finally happens.They wrap up the traitor subplot, and get ready to use the wyverns, but they need permission from the king.Also, there are some villains who haven't shown their faces since the second boss fight, but at least their group has a name now.

So yeah, the story isn't very engaging, at least so far. The characters? I still can't get a proper grasp on Milla's personality, aside from "COMPLETE MY MISSION." Jude could qualify as okay if the game actually decides to do something with his chronic hero syndrome, rather than just showing us his chronic hero syndrome. Elize hasn't done much aside from being the cinnamon roll. I hardly recall much of Rowen aside from his introduction. Leia is either going to be an okay character or my most hated character. But at least there's Alvin. He isn't anything special, but at least he's something.This was going to be the paragraph where I praise the gameplay. But it suffers from one small problem: lag. It doesn't happen too often near the beginning, but once you get four party members, the amount of on-screen particles will inevitably put strain on the PS3, slowing down the entire game. Yes, these graphics look pretty when they're not lagging, but I still would have preferred downgraded graphics at a consistent framerate, rather than pretty graphics that run smoothly only 80% of the time.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

I'm chose Milla's side because boobs she's an adult, but I don't think it would have really made a difference. So far, Jude and Milla spend most of their screentime together, aside from around seven minutes of cutscenes and one dungeon. Heck, Jude's obligatory duel boss is still in Milla's side.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Jude's side is better. ...Well, for Xillia. Milla's side basically cuts out the last portion of the game.

Yeah, Xillia's gameplay is good, but besides that it just falls kinda flat. The only saving grace is Alvin (I hope you aren't tired of him betraying you yet, because he's going to do it about 20 more times). Jude, Leia, Elise, and Rowen just stick around for no real reason. Milla can be entertaining, but there isn't much to her besides "COMPLETE MY MISSION," and her mission ends up changing every other minute for no good reason by the end.

My and my friend played Graces after Xillia, and we liked pretty much everything about Graces better in the end.

Anyway, yesterday I picked up a used copy of Tales of Hearts (anime edition). Apparently Tales of Innocence got better reviews, but... at least I didn't pick Tales of the Tempest (the store had all 3 in stock)

(I hope you aren't tired of him betraying you yet, because he's going to do it about 20 more times)

That explains why Zelos got his outfit as a cameo title in the Symphonia PS3 version. Still think Richard's outfit would've fit much better.

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Anyway, yesterday I picked up a used copy of Tales of Hearts (anime edition). Apparently Tales of Innocence got better reviews, but... at least I didn't pick Tales of the Tempest (the store had all 3 in stock)

Well Innocence already has an R version on the Vita and... Hearts, too, or was that still in the making?

Jude's side is better. ...Well, for Xillia. Milla's side basically cuts out the last portion of the game.

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Anyway, yesterday I picked up a used copy of Tales of Hearts (anime edition). Apparently Tales of Innocence got better reviews, but... at least I didn't pick Tales of the Tempest (the store had all 3 in stock)

In hindsight, Innocence DS felt a little bare-bones compared to the other main Tales of games. Only three party members on the field, one sidequest, bland dungeon designs, ridiculous bonus dungeon, a few unfair difficulty spikes, and the game doesn't even properly explain the Mystic Arte prerequisites. I heard the remake improved on pretty much everything, except they went back to random encounters, and added another world into the plot.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

30 hours into Xillia 2. I'll give credit where it's due, they improved the combat. It's not a massive change, but at least it lags slightly less. The story... they're trying to do something different, I get that. What I don't get is whether they're trying to make Ludger an audience surrogate or his own character, or why no one objects to bringing an eight-year-old who can't fight to dangerous quests, when in the previous game, everyone objected to bringing along a twelve-year-old who was the most useful member in the party. The game does give a reason later on, but before that, no one knew. Aside from that, the story has an odd form of progression. Instead of "go where the characters are saying they're going," it's "pay off part of Ludger's massive debt via requests, then go where the characters say they're going." I'd say it creates pacing issues, but I'm the idiot who tries to complete every single little request, enough that I spent at least 8 hours without plot progression.The other problem I have with Xillia 2 so far is it's reusing of assets from the previous game. It's one thing to reuse the world maps with little to no change along with the exact same music, but then the game goes ahead and reuses bosses as well. I already counted six reused bosses.Maybe it gets better, maybe it doesn't. Either way, I'll find out for myself.

Spoiler: Also, this amuses me way more than it should (large image, no spoilers)

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

why no one objects to bringing an eight-year-old who can't fight to dangerous quests, when in the previous game, everyone objected to bringing along a twelve-year-old who was the most useful member in the party

Durr, obviously it's because the younger a party member, the better they are.

As I said before, the combat system was given a few tweaks which did improve it. However, they completely forgot about the difficulty when doing so. Normal encounters on the "moderate" difficulty were never more difficult than the first ten hours of Abyss on the "normal" difficulty, but the bosses are a ridiculous jump in difficulty. I also don't like how they removed mid-battle character switching and limited you to four party members during story sections with no one on stand-by.

The story is split into the main story, and character episodes. I found most of the character episodes quite interesting, as they helped to flesh out/develop the party members. The main story was able to pull off a few emotional moments, but it would probably be more effective if Ludger wasn't a silent protagonist. Yes, you read that right, Ludger is a silent protagonist, akin to the Descenders in the Radiant Mythology sub-series. However, he's still put through several things that any standard character would have, making some of the moments just plain awkward. Also, the story features one of the dumbest villain plots I've ever seen.

Spoiler:

-How in the bloody hell is collecting a bunch of random objects without succumbing to greed supposed to test if humanity is capable of responsibly using syprix, a tool that produces power by consuming spirits?-Does Chronos not realize that if Truth from FMA Origin stops sealing the miasma produced during reincarnation and lets all physical life die, then all the spirits will die as well because they rely on the mana produced by humans? Especially when he gave the Kresnik line the Chromatus ability as they created the one million fractured dimensions, making him the one responsible for overloading Origin's capacity to seal the miasma.-Does Bisley really think that enslaving the spirits to destroy the one million fractured dimensions would work, considering that one spirit taking physical form is already putting a lot of stress on the remaining mana supply?I'm resigned to the fact that corporate executives and higher beings in JRPGs are dumb, but this is dumb by their standards.

At the very least, some of the post-game rewards are quite nice. With them, I can make NG+ about how an eight-year-old girl created an army of Kongman clones as they plan to assimilate the entire world.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Wow I REALLY don't remember how much the EXP in Symphonia sucked... I went part-way through Niflheim multiples times for Leveling + Cooking purposes, got Presea to Level 80 so I can get the Gaia Cleaver for her and then spend 2:24 Hours in Niflheim, going through it entirely. So I got that done. And I'm on a Kratos route and I am not sure if I want to proceed to grind another 20 Levels for him in order to get his Lvl 100 Title (the last Title of his that I need to obtain) or proceed to NG+, go a different route but use my Grade for EXP Multiplier to get his title that way...I mean, one battle in Vinheim got me about 400+ EXP. 400!

I'm reading spoilers for Xillia, technically Wallbangers, and this is what stands out to me for Xillia: It's hard not to spend this whole scene yelling "STAND UP AND SAVE YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIEND YOU WUSS!"

I know this is a bad scene. Kind of like how the whole party yells at Luke after Akzeruth when, honestly, I want to smash their heads into the walls until they shut up!! (except for Anise, cause I totally ship her with Luke) So, you know, Tales generally has a damn bad scene with their characters off and on.

An overall complaint for Xillia is that the story isn't that good, since it seems to take plot twists from previous Tales games and just reuses them. Is the gameplay worth it? I mean, I already talked about how I think I would hate how Xillia keeps telling me "ZOMG MILLA IS TEH AWEZUM", but aside from that...

I'm reading spoilers for Xillia, technically Wallbangers, and this is what stands out to me for Xillia: It's hard not to spend this whole scene yelling "STAND UP AND SAVE YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIEND YOU WUSS!"

That scene actually made me appreciate Leia more. She seemed to be the only one who kept her shit together after what happened. And Milla's path just happens to skip that scene and a hell lot more.

As for the gameplay, it's okay at best. The battle system itself is all right, in that you have more freedom when comboing. This is countered by every boss being able to break out of combos whenever they feel like it. The link system is a love it or hate it thing among fans (I'm indifferent towards it). Aside from that, there are some well-crafted locations in the game, but the pathways between those locations are all canyons. Every. Single. One of them. Fortunately, you do get quick travel relatively early in the game, reducing the amount of backtracking required for sidequests. What else... cooking is replaced by buying food from stores/finding it in chests, 90% of alternate costumes are DLC, and hard mode increases the amount of health bosses have to the point where it takes a minimum of ten minutes to kill each of them. So is it worth it? Well I payed $9 for it, and I'd say it's worth at least $9, but full price? Hardly.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

One thing that really bugged me in Xillia was that, unlike Symphonia and Abyss, there was no overworld. You just go from town to highroad (EVERYTHING is a highroad) to town. So it doesn't feel like a world, but just a bunch of disjointed locations. I mean, you'll be in a desert, exit the area, and suddenly be in the arctic. I had absolutely no sense of where everything was in relation to each other, or even which town was part of which country, which is kinda important in a game all about a war between two countries.

I'm reading spoilers for Xillia, technically Wallbangers, and this is what stands out to me for Xillia: It's hard not to spend this whole scene yelling "STAND UP AND SAVE YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIEND YOU WUSS!"

That scene actually made me appreciate Leia more. She seemed to be the only one who kept her shit together after what happened. And Milla's path just happens to skip that scene and a hell lot more.

Yeah. I think that scene just makes people angry at Jude, maybe more than they possibly were before?

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and hard mode increases the amount of health bosses have to the point where it takes a minimum of ten minutes to kill each of them

Uh, better than Unknown in Abyss, which gave bosses up to 1 million+ HP? Better than Unknown in Vesperia, that forces you to go invincible to attacks via Overlimit, cause the enemies can kill you with one hit, even if you're at the highest level?

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One thing that really bugged me in Xillia was that, unlike Symphonia and Abyss, there was no overworld.

Well, I don't think that'll bug me all that much. XIII and XIII-2 had no overworld and I enjoyed the first game a lot. And at least this way, I won't get lost. I guess. (I'm sure I can still get lost if I don't try, knowing my sense of direction... I ended up taking the hard path in Symphonia the first time around, cause I was stupid and didn't realize Izoold had a second screen)

22 hours into Zestiria. Fortunately, my PC can run it without the horrendous lag that the PS3 version supposedly suffers from. Yet for some reason, the game is capped at 30 fps. It doesn't bother me, but I can hear the PC master race fuming over it. The battle system itself, I can only describe as Graces + fusion + AI party members that love to stand around and do nothing while bosses feel like they're programmed to kill the AI first, resulting in 18 deaths in one fight when none of those deaths were mine I mean what the fuck how stupid can you be. At the very least, fusion isn't as overpowered as I heard it would be.The story, so far it feels like it would be more appropriate for a Legend of Zelda game. "Guy who grows up in secluded village travels to kingdom to stop assassination of girl he met two days ago, obtains a divine power, learns he must stop the King of Evil Lord of Calamity,

Spoiler:

fails to stop him,

and now must go to temples corresponding with the elements to gain the power he needs to do so. I wouldn't mind so much if the characters had more than two tropes to their personality. Granted, there's probably still a lot more to come.The music though, is slowly becoming myfavorite soundtrack in the series.

Also,...someone had to do it.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

You know, one scene in Tales of the Abyss always seemed a little... off to me. I know it's a plot relevant one, but everyone's reaction is just much too exaggerated. It's the scene where Luke attacks Asch, who blocks it, and then we fully see Asch's face and it looks the same as Luke's. Big schock. Very exciting.

Yet... is the population and DNA combination so diverse in Auldrant that nobody has ever encountered a person who looks a whole damn lot like them? If the population is small, this would mean that identical strangers would be far more common. Heck, I've seen people who look like my mom, her old boyfriend, her current boyfriend... there's only so many ways DNA can make someone look.

You know, one scene in Tales of the Abyss always seemed a little... off to me. I know it's a plot relevant one, but everyone's reaction is just much too exaggerated. It's the scene where Luke attacks Asch, who blocks it, and then we fully see Asch's face and it looks the same as Luke's. Big schock. Very exciting.

Yet... is the population and DNA combination so diverse in Auldrant that nobody has ever encountered a person who looks a whole damn lot like them? If the population is small, this would mean that identical strangers would be far more common. Heck, I've seen people who look like my mom, her old boyfriend, her current boyfriend... there's only so many ways DNA can make someone look.

C-A

It's because he's a main character in a JRPG world.Seriously though, I guessing red hair and green eyes aren't common in Auldrant. I don't recall seeing any NPCs with those traits. Or were there? Damn, I need to play this game again.

"It's never too late to learn that growing old doesn't have to mean growing up. Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't smart or brave or worthy enough." -Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Seriously though, I guessing red hair and green eyes aren't common in Auldrant.

A natural combination of red hair and green eyes is pretty uncommon to begin with. But I wasn't particularly referring to hair- and eye-color, but to the face. I've seen people who have a face similar to my mother's, but much darker hair than she has.

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